>> Kurtis: No police force in
America has had more of its
officers killed in the line of
duty than the New York City
Police Department, and none of
those deaths caused more
outrage than that of officer
Eddie Byrne.

00:04:38

In the mid-1980s, with the
emergence of crack cocaine, the
NYPD was locked in violent
battle with local drug lords.

00:04:46

Nowhere was that more evident
than on the streets of South
Jamaica in the borough of
Queens.

00:04:52

By 1987, the area's crack trade
was estimated at $100 million a
year.

00:04:57

Drug dealers routinely killed or
tortured anyone who got in
their way, but the owner of this
house decided to risk angering
those drug lords.

00:05:06

Arjun Harden, his face concealed
for his protection, grew tired
of watching crack being sold in
his neighborhood.

00:05:13

He began calling the police
whenever he saw drug activity.

00:05:16

Those calls led to several
arrests.

00:05:19

>> The people who ran that drug
area realized it was Mr. Arjun
who was making the calls.

The four met in this apartment
in a Queens housing project, and
for $8,000 each, they agreed to
carry out Pappy Mason's orders.

00:06:53

At the same time, the gang was
formulating its plan just one
mile away, Officer Eddie Byrne
was assuming the night watch at
the house of informant Arjun
Harden.

00:07:03

Byrne was a 22-year-old rookie
on the force less than 7 months,
but his blue uniform made him
the perfect target for Pappy
Mason's gang.

00:07:12

At 3:30 in the morning, they
made their move.

00:07:15

>> They parked there,
approximately a block away.

00:07:17

Scott Cobb stayed in the car.

00:07:19

He was the driver.

00:07:20

Todd Scott and Dave McClary
approached Eddie's vehicle from
the rear, and Todd Scott
approached the passenger side of
the vehicle, and David McClary
came up on the driver side and
just fired into the vehicle.

00:07:39

>> Kurtis: Five shots were
fired, three hitting Eddie Byrne
in the head, killing him
instantly.

00:07:46

Neighbors heard the shots and
called 911.

00:07:49

Detective Richard Sica and his
partner were the first officers
to arrive at the scene.

00:07:54

>> When you first saw it, it was
almost that it wasn't real.

00:08:00

We knew right away that we had
to go right into an
investigation.

00:08:04

Blocks were cordoned off from
one block in either direction,
and a crime scene was started
immediately.

00:08:10

>> Kurtis: For the next several
days, a virtual army of officers
swept through neighborhood crack
houses, arresting pushers and
users and then interrogating
them about the murder.

00:08:19

As with all cases of cop
killings, a sense of urgency
permeated the investigation.

00:08:24

Officers from surrounding areas
volunteered to help find the
shooter.

00:08:30

February 29, 1988, the funeral
of rookie Eddie Byrne, 10,000
New York City police officers
attended.

00:08:39

Among them was retired police
lieutenant Matthew Byrne,
Eddie's father.

00:08:47

Three days later, detectives got
their first break in the case.

00:08:51

A gang member named Martin
Howell called a hot line and
offered key information in
return for a $50,000 reward that
had been advertised.

00:08:59

>> Marty Howell was an actual
worker for Pappy Mason.

00:09:03

He knew Todd Scott and Scott
Cobb and Marshal Copeland from
dealing drugs.

00:09:09

>> Kurtis: Howell told
detectives that he was in the
apartment when Philip Marshal
Copeland delivered Pappy Mason's
order to execute a cop.

00:09:17

Later that same night, the
sweeps to pick up local drug
users paid a dividend when a
neighborhood prostitute and
crack addict was brought in.

00:09:25

>> She told the officers that
she was an actual eyewitness to
the murder of Edward Byrne and
that she knew Todd Scott from
attending school with him within
the area.

00:09:37

>> Kurtis: She then corroborated
what Marty Howell had told
police.

00:09:41

In addition to Todd Scott, she
identified Philip Copeland,
Scott Cobb, and David McClary
as members of the hit team.

00:09:49

Within 48 hours, the NYPD had
rounded up all four
gang members.

00:09:53

At the time, there was no death
penalty in New York.

00:09:56

In fact, the worst punishment a
killer could get was 25 to life,
er.

00:10:04

Not wanting to take unnecessary
chances, the prosecutors charged
the gang members with
second-degree murder.

00:10:12

>> Why take a chance that you
could run into appellate issues
by charging murder in the first
degree?

00:10:19

>> Kurtis: The prosecution had
to prove each gang member was an
active participant in the crime.

00:10:24

In New York, as in most states,
an accomplice in a murder is
just as culpable as the trigger
man.

00:10:29

The prosecution's case hinged on
videotaped statements that both
Todd Scott and Scott Cobb had
given police after their arrest.

00:10:37

Both had done so without a
lawyer present.

00:10:40

>> I just seen when the first
bullet hit him, 'cause he was up
close to the window with the gun
like this, and I heard the first
bullet.

00:10:47

And I saw when his head went
down.

00:10:48

And his hair went flying, like,
you know, like a blow dryer.

00:10:52

And I seen stuff, you know,
blood and stuff, and I ran.

00:10:56

>> Each of the statements were
really an attempt to say, "He
did it; not me.

00:11:03

Maybe I was there, but I didn't
know what was gonna happen."
So they were all sort of
pointing their fingers at one
another.

00:11:09

>> Kurtis: But todd scott's
lawyer charged that the
statement had been beaten out of
his client by hotheaded NYPD
detectives who were in a fury to
catch a cop killer.

00:11:19

>> Todd had told me that he was
beaten.

00:11:22

One of the police officers
grabbed his testicles.

00:11:24

They told him what to say, and
he said it, but he said he--it
wasn't a voluntary statement.

00:11:30

He didn't make that statement of
his own free will.

00:11:33

>> Now, you're speaking to me
because you want to speak to me
about this incident now.

00:11:36

Is that a fair statement?

00:11:37

>> Yes.

00:11:38

>> Kurtis: Prosecutors refuted
the claim of brutality by
showing photos of Scott taken
immediately following his
statement.

00:11:44

>> After he described this
serious beating where he's
beaten in the chest and kicked
and thrown down and this just
whole calumny of...almost
endless beatings, there was not
a mark on him.

00:12:00

>> Kurtis: Philip copeland made
no videotape statement.

00:12:03

He simply denied any involvement
and said he had an alibi to
prove it: The night of the
murder, he had been out with
his girlfriend.

00:12:10

>> And I brought in three
witnesses to place him at a
diner where he had a meal with
her and left, and then he went
to a motel for this romantic
interlude.

00:12:21

>> Kurtis: But prosecutors
argued that Copeland had left
the motel in time to be present
at the murder.

00:12:26

And they offered the testimony
of the street prostitute, now in
the witness protection program,
to prove it.

00:12:32

The prostitute, Rachel Moore,
said she had seen Copeland at
the murder scene.

00:12:36

She also ID'd the other gang
members.

00:12:39

Gang member Martin Howell also
testified to Copeland's
involvement in the planning
stages of the murder back in the
Queens apartment.

00:12:46

But the defense argued that
neither witness could be
trusted.

00:12:49

The prostitute was a crack
addict, and Martin Howell, they
said, was being paid for his
testimony.

00:12:56

>> He claimed that he heard what
had occurred, but Martin Howell
also claimed the reward money,
and Martin Howell was receiving
money on a weekly basis from the
police in order to do drugs and
to live, so to speak.

00:13:11

>> Who is it that you expect to
find out at 4:00 in the morning?

00:13:16

You're not going to find the
minister, the priest, the rabbi.

00:13:22

You're not going to find the
local deacon out.

00:13:25

The people that you're going to
find on the streets, and we
didn't pick them, are crack
dealers, prostitutes.

00:13:31

>> Kurtis: Jury members bought
that argument.

00:13:33

All four defendants were found
guilty.

00:13:36

Each was sentenced to the
maximum of 25 years to life in
prison.

00:13:42

But Defense Attorney Frank
Hancock feels the case was
biased from the start.

00:13:46

He says the fact that the victim
was a cop enflamed the entire
system, from the NYPD to
prosecutors, even the judge.

00:13:54

>> I still remember the judge's
final remark.

00:13:57

"I will not be around at the
point in time when you first
come before the parole board,
but my last official act, I'm
gonna write a letter to the
parole board to see that you
never see daylight again."
>> Kurtis: A year later, howard
Pappy Mason was convicted in
federal court of drug
racketeering and ordering the
murder of Eddie Byrne.

00:14:16

He was sentenced to life in
prison, and as a direct result
of the publicity generated by
the Byrne murder, Congress wrote
a cop-killing statute into its
1988 crime bill making the
murder of a police officer
during a drug transaction a
federal death penalty offense.

00:14:37

That federal statute was put to
the test in Texas in 1991.

00:14:41

It was a case that would end up ing solved
in part by the
officer himself.

00:14:46

Just moments before his murder,
he flipped on a videotape and
recorded his killers.

00:15:53

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00:19:29

>> Do you have any ID?

00:19:30

Do you have any ID on you?

00:19:31

>> No, sir, I'm with, ah--
>> Kurtis: For police officers,
this video is about as scary as
they come.

00:19:36

It shows a cop who is about to
be killed, and every cop knows
it could happen to them.

00:19:42

>> Where--what state you got a
driver's license in?

00:19:45

>> Ah, Texas, here.

00:19:46

>> Kurtis: It happened along
Texas Highway 59, the same road
where trooper Bill Davidson was
killed in 1992.

00:19:53

It's a major drug corridor out
of Mexico.

00:19:55

Officers here know that even a
simple traffic stop can turn
deadly.

00:20:00

Stand right here just a minute.

00:20:04

I'll be with you in just second.

00:20:06

Probably turn these headlights
off and kill the engine.

00:20:09

>> Okay.

00:20:13

>> Be right back with you.

00:20:15

Okay.

00:20:17

So you live in Houston?

00:20:18

>> Kurtis: On january 23, 1991,
Renaldo Villarreal, here
standing outside the car; his
brother Baldemar; and Jesus
Jesse Sembrano had been driving
north on Highway 59 with 70
pounds of marijuana in the
trunk.

00:20:34

47-year-old Constable Darrell
Lunsford had pulled them over
near the east Texas town of
Garrison.

00:20:39

>> Yeah.

00:20:40

>> Kurtis: Lunsford apparently
suspected their cargo.

00:20:43

>> What?

00:20:43

One day? Two days?

00:20:44

>> Yeah, one day.

00:20:45

>> Oh, you just been there one
day?

00:20:46

Do you have anything to worry
about or anything?

00:20:48

>> Ah, no.

00:20:49

>> Okay.

00:20:51

Stand right here just a minute.

00:20:52

>> Okay.

00:20:54

>> Darrell, that night, had made
a couple drug arrests for people
transporting narcotics, and in
our mind, he probably pulled
them over for the same purpose.

00:21:04

>> To cover the vast lands of
Texas, many officers patrol
alone.

00:21:09

As a safety measure, they wear
microphones and use dash-mounted
video cameras to back up their
testimony later in court.

00:21:18

>> Let me look in the trunk.

00:21:26

I'll get it.

00:21:27

I'll get it.

00:21:31

You stay in the car.

00:21:32

I'll get it.

00:21:33

>> Kurtis: For darrell
Lunsford, it would record the
last moments of his life but
also give investigators the
critical clues to find the men
who killed him as he searched
their trunk.

00:21:43

>> And there was two large
duffle bags in there, and
there's no doubt in my mind that
Darrell Lunsford knew what was
in the trunk at that time, even
though he didn't make a comment
to that effect.

00:21:54

And I'm sure at that point in
time that Renaldo and Baldemar
and Jesus knew, when he opened
the trunk, that they were
caught.

00:22:03

Baldemar Villarreal, in the red
jacket, had by now joined his
brother at the back of the car.

>> Kurtis: During the fight,
Baldemar, in the red, gets hold
of Lunsford gun and fires a
shot.

00:22:29

The bullet entered Lunsford's
neck, shattered his spine, and
killed him instantly.

00:22:37

>> It's kind of shocking.

00:22:38

You realize now you've got an
officer lying in the ditch there
that's dead.

00:22:44

It's almost like watching
television and realizing that he
was killed as a result of these
men's actions.

00:22:52

It--kind of shocking.

00:22:55

>> Kurtis: The killers fled
north, but when they saw a
patrol car going in the opposite
direction, they panicked and
ditched their car on a side
street just three blocks from
the murder scene.

00:23:05

Highway patrol soon found
Lunsford dead by the side of
the road.

00:23:09

They called Sheriff Joe Evans.

00:23:11

>> Because of the type of wound
it was and that it was so
destructive to his spinal
column--there was just a small
entrance wound, and there was no
exit wound--we felt, initially,
that he may have been beaten on,
or that he may have been hit by
a vehicle.

00:23:25

So we ran the video back looking
for any evidence of this.

00:23:29

>> Kurtis: The dashboard
video recorder began to reveal
what had happened.

00:23:33

After watching that fatal
struggle on tape, Evans ordered
an immediate search for the
three Hispanic men.

00:23:39

Within an hour, authorities
found Villarreal's abandoned
car.

00:23:43

>> We set up roadblocks on all
the major roads.

00:23:45

We started watching the railroad
tracks.

00:23:48

We called Houston and Dallas,
notified the airports, bus
stations, taxi cabs, any type of
transportation.

00:23:55

We alerted all the agencies if
they saw anybody hitchhiking.

00:23:59

As in New York after the killing
of rookie cop Eddie Byrne,
officers from around the state
offered their assistance.

00:24:05

>> Within about probably 3
hours, we had 100, 150
volunteers, including citizens
from Garrison, and about 8 hours
later, we probably had--
approximately 200, 250 officers
had arrived.

00:24:18

>> Kurtis: Late that afternoon,
Renaldo Villarreal, the driver,
was caught while walking down a
country road in a neighboring
county.

00:24:24

>> Have a good time--
>> Watch your head.

00:24:25

>> Son of a bitch.

00:24:26

..].

00:24:29

>> Kurtis: The next morning, his
brother Baldemar, the shooter,
was picked up as he walked down
the railroad tracks leading out
of town, and a week later, the
final suspect, Jesse Sembrano,
was captured outside of this
diner.

00:24:42

From the raw videotape, the
county sheriff's department
could not pinpoint which of the
three had actually shot Darrell
Lunsford.

00:24:50

So they turned the tape over to
the FBI, which enhanced the
sound and expanded the video
frame.

00:24:56

With these improvements,
the answer was clear.

00:24:58

We know basically when the shot
occurred, because the coroner
stated that the shot would have
probably killed Mr. Lunsford
instantly.

00:25:08

So after the scuffle, and he's
not moving anymore, right after
that, we see the weapon in
Baldemar's hand.

00:25:16

>> Kurtis: Now the local
prosecutors wanted to ensure
that no matter what, the cop
killers would get stiff
punishment--if possible, death
by lethal injection.

00:25:25

But they decided they had a
better chance of getting it if
they turned the case over to the
feds.

00:25:31

That's becausere was now a
federal law passed in 1988 that
made anyone who killed a cop
during a drug-trafficking arrest
eligible for death.

00:25:39

A law passed as a result of the
killing of officer Eddie Byrne
in New York.

00:25:44

And even if the cop killers did
not get sentenced to death,
under federal law, they would
have to serve at least 85% of
their prison terms.

00:25:56

The first step for the feds was
to prove that the three men had
been transporting drugs at the
time of the killing.

00:26:01

Defendant Jesse Sembrano made
that easy by agreeing to testify
for the prosecution in exchange
for leniency.

00:26:08

>> He testified that this was a
drug transaction.

00:26:11

In other words, they had
obtained the marijuana in the
Rio Grande Valley, and it was
their intent to take it to the
Chicago area for resale.

00:26:19

>> Kurtis: Then he named
Baldemar Villarreal as the man
who had pulled the trigger.

00:26:24

The enhanced version of the
videotape backed up his
testimony.

00:26:28

There was very little the
defense could do.

00:26:30

On July 1, 1991, the jury found
Renaldo and Baldemar Villarreal
guilty of murder.

00:26:37

Now the prosecution had to
convince the jurors that the
Villarreal brothers should die.

00:26:42

There were two very specific
requirements.

00:26:45

>> One of the things was that
it--we had to prove that the
crime was committed in an
especially heinous manner or
means.

00:26:54

Secondly, we had to prove that
it was committed after
substantial planning and/or
premeditation.

00:27:00

>> Kurtis: Baldemar's lawyer
argued that the killing had
occurred without any planning.

00:27:04

He was on parole, and of course,
he had 70 pounds of marijuana in
the trunk of the car, and he
knew that he was about to be
arrested and almost certainly
charged and convicted and
returned to the penitentiary.

00:27:21

So I'm sure the reason he lunged
at him was in an attempt to
escape, to get away.

00:27:26

>> Kurtis: While the videotape
was crucial in proving guilt,
the defense felt it was their
best argument against the death
penalty.

00:27:33

I believe it demonstrated the
nature of the offense, that
being not one that was
particularly heinous or brutal.

00:27:42

It was simply some young men
wrestling with a big law
enforcement officer, the officer
and the young men struggling for
the gun, and the young men ended
up with it, and the officer
ended up dead.

00:27:54

>> Kurtis: The jury agreed and
voted against the death penalty.

00:27:57

They sentenced gunman Baldemar
Villarreal to life in prison
without parole, his brother
Renaldo to 40 years, and because
he had cooperated with
prosecutors, the third
defendant, Jesse Sembrano, got
30 years.

00:28:11

It's rare for anyone involved in
cop killing to get off with a
light sentence.

00:28:16

>> People who risk their lives
every day on the street deserve
that special added protection
that comes with the fact that
someone out there knows that if
they decide that they're going
to kill a law enforcement
officer that they may be facing
the death penalty themselves.

00:28:32

>> Kurtis: Since 1994, nearly
800 police officers have been
killed in the line of duty.

00:28:38

A common justification given by
those accused of slaying a cop
is self-defense, that they
killed out of fear for their
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a cop making an arrest.

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00:33:19

>> Kurtis: There are very few
excuses American justice will
buy when it comes to killing a
police officer.

00:33:26

The standards for justifiable
homicide are extremely tight
when the victim is a cop making
an arrest.

On May 13, 1990, they were
working an evening shift
together when they responded to
a seemingly routine domestic
disturbance call at this house.

00:33:52

The call involved this man,
21-year-old Roman Chavez, who
lived with his grandmother,
Florence Huniga.

00:33:58

They did not get along.

00:34:01

>> On the day this happened,
Roman Chavez had his car parked
in Florence's garage behind her
house.

00:34:07

She went out to the garage and
asked him to move his car so she
could park hers.

00:34:11

He told her, "Get lost.

00:34:13

I'll do whatever I want."
Florence went back to her house
and called the police.

00:34:19

>> Kurtis: When officers hauser
and Kilroy arrived, they walked
out to the garage, where Chavez
was working on his car.

00:34:26

He had the back end of the car
sticking out of the garage and
the overhead door pulled down
onto the trunk.

00:34:32

>> Access into the garage was
very limited by the space
between the car and the door
frame.

00:34:37

Only one person could squeeze in
the garage at a time.

00:34:40

Florence Huniga walked over to a
window to watch what was going
to happen, and the two officers
entered into the garage.

00:34:47

>> Kurtis: This man, reverend
Andrew Hagan, also watched from
his house across the street, but
neither he nor Florence Huniga
could see what happened inside.

00:34:56

To get a closer look, the priest
began to come out of his house.

00:35:00

Just then, he heard Chavez
screaming in the garage,
and then six gunshots.

00:35:06

Chavez emerged from the garage
alone.

00:35:09

Afterward, Reverend Hagan would
describe the scene.

00:35:12

>> Roman came out of the front
of the garage, walked toward the
house, and he didn't run.

00:35:17

He was walking.

00:35:18

He had the gun in the air.

00:35:19

>> Kurtis: The gun was officer
Hauser's.

00:35:21

Both he and his partner, Raymond
Kilroy, lay dying inside the
garage.

00:35:26

Reverend Hagan called the
police.

00:35:29

Chavez disappeared into the
house.

00:35:31

He quickly crawled out this
upstairs window and ran as
Chicago police began to swarm
the neighborhood.

00:35:37

It took five hours, but they
found him hiding under this
porch just a few blocks away.

00:35:43

Once Chavez was extricated,
investigators found Officer
Hauser's gun buried under the
porch.

00:35:49

Detectives then went back to
search his room.

00:35:51

In his bedroom were found
Officer Kilroy's handcuffs, his
keys, and one expended bullet
casing of the type of ammunition
used exclusively by the Chicago
Police Department.

00:36:02

In addition, when I had Roman
Chavez brought up to my office
here, I had a test performed on
him known as a gunshot residue
test, and it proved positive for
firearms on his hands.

00:36:12

>> Kurtis: May 17, 1990, the
burial of officer Gregory
Hauser.

00:36:19

The next day, the scene was
repeated for Raymond Kilroy.

00:36:26

The following month, Roman
Chavez was indicted on
first-degree murder charges.

00:36:31

Because the two victims were
police officers, prosecutors, as
usual, demanded the death
penalty.

00:36:37

They said Chavez had
intentionally kill the two
cops because he was angry with
the entire Chicago police force
over some previous traffic
arrests.

00:36:46

>> He thought that they were
being unfair and that they had
targeted him in some fashion,
and he voiced the opinion to a
lot of people that he wasn't
gonna put up with it anymore and
that he was going to do
something.

00:36:56

In fact, in some cases, he told
people he would kill a police
officer.

00:37:00

>> Kurtis: It was clear that the
weakest part of the
prosecution's case was the lack
of an eyewitness to the
shooting.

00:37:06

That was critical, because
Chavez claimed he had not killed
in anger but in self-defense
after being beaten by the
officers.

00:37:14

But his attorney, Bob Isaacson,
knew a self-defense case would
be difficult to win, because
when the victim is a cop making
an arrest, the standards are
much tougher.

00:37:24

>> It's not like a barroom fight
when two people are involved,
and then the only question is
whether the person reasonably
believed that they were going to
be either killed or badly hurt.

00:37:35

>> Kurtis: To argue self-defense
in a cop killing, Chavez had to
prove the two officers had used
excessive force.

00:37:42

And while both the Reverend
Hagan and Chavez's grandmother
heard Roman scream just before
the gunshots, the prosecution
argued he was just angry over
the cops' attempt to handcuff
him.

00:37:52

And to prove Chavez wasn't
beaten, Prosecutor Scott Nelson
showed these photographs taken
the night he was arrested.

00:38:01

>> His whole body was
photographed while he was in his
underwear, and he had a couple
of scrapes, and he was pretty
dirty because he had been buried
underneath the steps, but
outside of the scrapes incident
to that arrest, he had no other
injuries that would suggest that
he had been beaten in any way.

00:38:13

>> They took photographs of him
in various states of undress.

00:38:17

There wasn't in most of the
pictures, a clear view of his
hip.

00:38:21

There was only one picture that
showed a little bit of his hip
area, which is really critical,
because it showed where the
police were--how the police were
beating him.

00:38:31

>> Kurtis: The trajectory of the
gunshot wounds became another
point of contention.

00:38:35

One of the three bullets to hit
Officer Hauser had struck in the
top of his head.

00:38:39

>> The defendant wasn't tall
enough to shoot Greg Hauser in
the top of the head shooting
down into his head anyway except
Greg Hauser being bent over or
sitting down.

00:38:49

What happened was, he was
sitting down on the ground.

00:38:51

He had slumped down and was
dying by the time he reached
over and put the last shot into
his head.

00:38:55

>> I asked Koelliker, who was
the medical examiner, when she
was testifying if the gunshot
wound to Officer Hauser's head
was not consistent with him
charging towards my client to
try to finish off my client.

00:39:09

And she said, "Yes."
And there's no way that my
theory of how it happened was
any more or less likely than the
prosecution's theory about what
happened.

00:39:18

>> Kurtis: But on may 8, 1991,
the juryouom Cz
guilty.

00:39:23

Before the punisent phase of
the trial could begin, under
Illinois law, the jury first had
to decide if Chavez qualified
for the death penalty.

00:39:31

Prosecutor Nelson told them
Chavez was a perfect candidate.

00:39:36

Murdering a police officer who's
acting in the line of duty makes
you eligible for the death
penalty.

00:39:41

So he was eligible twice.

00:39:42

He would be eligible for murder
committed during the course of a
robbery for both officers, and
finally, he would be eligible
for murdering more than one
person.

00:39:51

So there were five different
theories under which the jury
could find that he was eligible
for a death sentence.

00:39:56

>> Kurtis: But in a surprise
move, they did not.

00:39:59

Under state law, Chavez was then
automatically sentenced to life
in prison without parole.

00:40:05

Prosecutor Nelson can only
speculate that a juror or two
held some sympathy for the cop
killer.

>> At first, I was disappointed
that the death penalty had not
been handed down, but the more
you think about it, life in
prison with no parole,
especially when you're in your
mid-20s is something that you're
going to have to face every
single day of your life as to
what you had done.

00:40:39

>> Kurtis: Because police go
after cop killers with such
fury, very few cases remain
unsolved, even if they take
years to break.

>> Kurtis: For the majority of
cop killers, American justice is
swift and severe.

00:45:29

But that was not always the
case.

00:45:32

In the 1940s, most cops were
white, particularly in the
South.

00:45:36

Black officers, even when killed
in the line of duty, were a
lower priority.

00:45:42

It was September 1944 when John
Millage and four others were
sworn in as Miami's first black
officers.

00:45:49

Their mandate was narrow--to
keep order in the city's black
communities only.

00:45:53

Ralph White was one of that
original group.

00:45:56

>> If we came upon a white
person that was violating the
law, we would try to detain them
and call for one of the cars
from downtown with white police
to come out and arrest them.

00:46:06

They didn't give us the same
title.

00:46:09

They gave us "patrolmen" instead
of "policemen."
>> Kurtis: Those patrolmen
worked places like the black
neighborhood of Overtown.

00:46:18

John Millage was patrolling at a
high-school football game there
on November 1, 1946.

00:46:23

>> John Millage was patrolling
the outside perimeter of the
park when he observed several
kids trying to break into a gate
that led into the park.

00:46:34

He ran, and he chased them away.

00:46:36

Minutes after, the kids who
fled, they came back from an
alley across the street, fired a
shot which went through Officer
Millage's neck.

00:46:45

>> Kurtis: He died several hours
later, becoming Miami's first
black officer killed in the line
of duty.

00:46:51

But unlike cop killings today,
the search for the shooter did
not consume the entire Miami
force.

00:46:57

There were not hundreds of
volunteers to work the case,
only the other black officers,
their ranks now up to 19 men.

00:47:04

>> They brought in a number of
people who were suspects.

00:47:06

They interrogated them.

00:47:07

We don't believe that there were
white officers involved except
the white supervisors who were
always in charge of the black
precinct.

00:47:14

>> Kurtis: No one in overtown
was talking.

00:47:16

A $500 reward was posted, but
still, the case remained
unsolved, and it stayed that way for years,
decades, until 1989.

00:47:25

That's when a woman contacted
the police with a tip.

00:47:28

She said she'd been silent so
long because she feared
retribution, but now, 43 years
later, it seemed safe.

00:47:35

Her call was forwarded to
Detective George Cadavid.

00:47:39

>> She said that she and her
boyfriend had been sitting at
the porch that night, talking,
when she saw a person run past
her house, that he had a bad
eye, and that he was holding a
rifle.

00:47:51

>> Kurtis: The case was
reopened.

00:47:52

After studying the original
file, Detective Cadavid found
mention of a 17-year-old with a
bad eye named Leroy Straun.

00:48:00

He then discovered that Leroy
had moved to New York City
exactly one day after the
Millage shooting.

00:48:07

Cadavid flew there and within
weeks traced Leroy Straun to
this office building where, for
22 years, he had operated the
freight elevator.

00:48:15

Straun was now 60.

00:48:16

When the detective inquired
about the killing of Officer
Millage, he denied any
volvement.

00:48:21

But within hours, the 43 years
of silent guilt overcame him.

00:48:26

Straun admitted that, indeed, he
had killed the police officer.

00:48:29

On February 15, 1990, Leroy
Straun was jailed on a
first-degree murder charge.

00:48:35

Prosecutors could not seek the
death penalty for Straun since
killing a cop had not been a
capital offense back in 1946.

00:48:43

In fact, prosecutors weren't
sure what to do with the case.

00:48:46

Aside from the confession, there
wasn't much evidence left, nor
was there a clear purpose for
severely punishing a cop killer
who had been a model citizen
ever since the shooting.

00:48:56

>> We were not sentencing the
same person who had committed
the crime.

00:49:01

Although the body was the same,
clearly, his mental attitude,
the way he had conducted his
life for 50 years or nearly 50
years from the time of the crime
without any further criminal
activity that we were aware of
>> Kurtis: After 19 months of
negotiations with defense
attorneys, prosecutors agreed to
a plea bargain.

00:49:19

Straun pleaded guilty to the
lesser charge of manslaughter.

00:49:22

He was sentenced to time already
served: 7 years on probation
and 500 hours of community
service.

00:49:29

>> It was solved very late, and
that presented a number of
problems practically and
philosophically as to how to
deal with it, and I don't know
that you could find another case
that would be dealt with in the
same manner for the killing of a
police officer.

00:49:42

>> Kurtis: That's because most
cop killings are solved almost
immediately with little sympathy
for the murderer.

00:49:48

As we've seen in American
justice, extreme punishments are
the norm for cop killers.

00:49:53

A deterrent, perhaps, but
emotionally, such sentences
reaffirm for us and for other
officers the two values that a
cop killing assaults: law and
order.

00:50:06

With the proliferation of
handguns and the violent drug
culture that the police confront
on a daily basis, there is a
popular misconception that cop
killings are on the rise.

00:50:16

In fact, the numbers have been
declining for several years, and
experts point to a couple of
reasons.

00:50:23

One, body armor.

00:50:24

ing the dangers th face,
many police officers now wea
bulletproof vests as a standard
part of their uniform.

00:50:32

Secondly, the message seems to
have gotten through to criminals
that swift and severe punishment
awaits all those who kill a cop.

00:50:42

ForAmerican Justice,
I'm Bill Kurtis.

00:51:00

(male narrator) FOR HOMICIDE DETECTIVES,
The clock starts ticking the moment they
are called.

00:51:05

(Zimmerman) THERE SHE GOES,
Driving to her death here.

00:51:10

(Holthusen) IT'S A SHAME.

00:51:11

I mean, 19-year-old girl.

00:51:14

[siren wailing]
Time is ticking away.

00:51:16

(man) OF ALL THE PEOPLE I TOLD, HE WAS THE
Most shooken up.

00:51:18

(narrator) THEIR CHANCE OF SOLVING A MURDER
..

00:51:22

His world is completely shattered.

00:51:24

(narrator) IF THEY DON'T GET A LEAD...

00:51:25

(Dolce) SHE SAYS SHE'S NEVER BEEN HIT BY
Anybody
the way that she got hit by him.

00:51:29

(narrator) WITHIN THE FIRST 48 HOURS.

00:51:32

Zach, zach, look at me.

00:51:34

You are such a liar, and you know it.

00:51:36

[dramatic music]
♪ ♪

00:51:53

(narrator)MINNEAPOLIS, MINNETA,
8:00 P.m.

00:52:01

A cold night few days before christmas.

00:52:05

(man) HO, HO, HO.

00:52:06

Merry christmas.

00:52:09

[line rings]
[siren wailing]
(narrator) WHEN POLICE ARRIVE,
They find a woman in the car dead.

00:52:40

(Zimmerman) I KEEP WANTING TO QUIT SMOKING.

00:52:42

And every time I get a murder, I end up smoking
more,
so that way, I really don't have to blame
myself
for being addicted to smoking.